Q/ India is the fifth country to have isolated the SARS-COV2 virus. What are the implications of this achievement?
A/ Coronaviruses in general are not very easy to propagate in culture, but we have managed to do it. We now have isolates of the SARS-CoV-2. While we continue to focus on testing, which is our major mandate, the implications of isolating the virus are huge and are crucial at this point. By isolating the virus, the next step would be testing in-vitro for susceptibility to drugs, future vaccine development and development of diagnostic assays including point of care assays.
Q/ Please explain the process behind the isolation of the virus.
This story is from the March 29, 2020 edition of THE WEEK.
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This story is from the March 29, 2020 edition of THE WEEK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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